Memoirs from 10 weeks in...

Written Sept 4th, 2006

Zurich was the last of luxury that we have seen, and probably will see for a long, long time. Let me explain. We departed Zurich on August 13th in search of the sun that we had been sadly missing for over 2 weeks. Because we are, of course, the smartest two travelers around, we darted off to the south, Barcelona more specifically, in a wild goose chase to reunite with the tans that we had lost along with the sun. Our vanity seemed to overpower our wits, however, as we failed to even check a weather report before leaving. So, of course, we wound up in Barcelona around 15 or so hours later to find nothing else but the same bad weather we left the day before. Unmotivated to even walk around the town again without so much as the reward of a warm, sunny beach with crystal blue waters, I failed to step outside the train station before departing again, this time north to France to avoid the expensive Spanish reservartion fees.

About 3 days later we finally settled in Paris for two nights (one of which being in the train station), after spending one night camped out in a random field near the French-Spanish border, and stopping briefly (and I mean very briefly) in Bordeaux before realizing our lack of a city map and after realizing our laziness to find one or ask directions to the hostel. Trains at least kept us warm and out of the rain. Plus they helped us break our record of longest period traveling straight.

Paris was expensive this time around, and this fact was made very, very apparent to us once we realized that neither of us has any money to our name. We walked around Paris for a day and sat outside the Louvre for 3 hours while deciding that we hated being tourists and hitting the road again. The only reason we had any direction was because we finally got in contact with one of Patrick's friends from Stockholm, Benny, who invited us to come stay with him on his family's farm in the Black Forest area of Germany. Hope was restored in us as we moved east toward free accomodation and a friendly face.

I was forced to practice my German while there, as Benny's family spoke no English. His mom showered us with kindness, as she cooked us authentic German meals (as it seems all Germans do so well) and baked 2 cakes a day. She spoke German slowly enough for me to understand, and at times spoke to Patrick before turning around and realizing that it was Patrick, the only non-German speaker in the house, and laughing it away.